On magdalenian mobility and land use in north-west Europe

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eelco Rensink
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
North West ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
New Directions ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Europe

Investigations into the upper palaeolithic settlement history of Europe have made significant advances over the past decades in several fields. As a result of the reappraisal of old collections and the excavation of ‘new’ sites, an extensive data set has become available which can be used to study aspects of the organization of palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. The improvement of absolute and relative dating methods has provided the archaeologist with a more solid chronological framework. Additionally, innovations in archaeological theory and methodology have led to the exploration of new directions of inquiry. This paper focuses on a well-known example of these new directions: the study ofregionalsettlement-subsistence systems of palaeolithic groups, incorporating the systematic evaluation of archaeological data recovered from substantial areas. A growing number of archaeologists dealing with the upper palaeolithic record and active in various regions throughout Europe is currently engaged in this particular form of analysis (Audouze 1992; Hahn 1987; Julien 1987; Straus 1986; Weniger 1987, 1989).

An Archaeology of Abundance

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Ecology ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Power Networks ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
Restoration Practices ◽  
Spanish Explorers ◽  
Marginal Habitats

An Archaeology of Abundance focuses on the archaeology and historical ecology of a series of islands located off the Pacific Coast of Alta and Baja California, from the Channel Islands to Cedros Island. Compared to the adjacent mainland, these islands have long been considered marginal habitats for ancient hunter-gatherers, beginning with accounts of early Spanish explorers and by later naturalists, scientists, and government agents, as well as the anthropologists and archaeologists who followed. This perception of marginality has greatly influenced our interpretation of a variety of archaeological issues including the antiquity of first settlement; the productivity of island floras, freshwater, and mineral resources; human population density; and the nature of regional exchange, wealth, and power networks. Recent advances in archaeological and historical ecological research, combined with field observations of recovering ecosystems suggest that the California Islands may not have been the marginal habitats they once appeared to be. Severe overgrazing and overfishing during historic times heavily impacted local ecosystems, which are now recovering under modern management, conservation, and restoration practices. While older models developed through the perspective of island marginality may hold true for certain resources or islands, it is important to reconsider our interpretations of past and present archaeological data, and reevaluate long-held assumptions, given these new insights. Ultimately, a reexamination of the effects of perceived marginality on the history of archaeological interpretations on California's islands may have broad implications for other island archipelagos worldwide.

Going Over: The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in North-West Europe

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
North West ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Farmers ◽  
Rich Data

The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people thought about themselves and their worlds, from their pasts to their animals. Two sets of protagonists have often been lined up in the long-running debates about these processes: on the one hand incoming farmers and on the other indigenous hunter-gatherers. Both have found advocates as the dominant force in the transitions to a new way of life. North-west Europe presents a very rich data set for this fundamental change, and research has both extended and deepened our knowledge of regional sequences, from the sixth to the fourth millennia bc. One of the most striking results is the evident diversity from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia. No one region is quite like another; hunter-gatherers and early farmers alike were also varied and the old labels of Mesolithic and Neolithic are increasingly inadequate to capture the diversity of human agency and belief. Surveys of the most recent evidence presented here also strongly suggest a diversity of transformations. Some cases of colonization on the one hand and indigenous adoption on the other can still be argued, but many situations now seem to involve complex fusions and mixtures. This wide-ranging set of papers offers an overview of this fundamental transition.

scholarly journals Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set

PLoS Genetics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. e1000448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Patin ◽  
Guillaume Laval ◽  
Luis B. Barreiro ◽  
Antonio Salas ◽  
Ornella Semino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Demographic History ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
History Of

Automatic Classification of Inspectional Categories: Multivariate Theories of Archaeological Data

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Benfer ◽  
Alice N. Benfer
Keyword(s):  
Automatic Classification ◽  
Multivariate Methods ◽  
Multivariate Models ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Classification Schemes ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classificatory System

The application of extremely complex multivariate models of classification to subjective inspectional methods of categorization is analyzed in detail, with the widely used Texas system of dart point typology as a case study. The history of the development of the Texas dart point typological system is sketched. An attempt by Gunn and Prewitt (1975) to objectify the classificatory system by multivariate methods is criticized. The techniques applied were too idiosyncratic to the particular data set used to be of predictive value. Discriminant function and multivariate classification analysis are discussed in detail, emphasizing simple geometrical examples by which the major principles may be grasped. Suggestions for improvement are offered for those who wish to follow Gunn and Prewitt in constructing automatic classification schemes.

A new structural analysis of the Browse Basin, Australian North West Margin

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Lawrence ◽  
Mark Thompson ◽  
Adrian Rankin ◽  
Joanna Alexander ◽  
Daniel Bishop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Gravity Inversion ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Potential Field Data ◽  
North West ◽  
Petroleum Systems ◽  
Plate Reconstructions ◽  
Fold Belts ◽  
History Of

A new structural analysis is presented for the Browse Basin of the Australian North West Margin, integrating new observations based on a regional 2D seismic data-set and potential field data. Previously published plate reconstructions and gravity inversion modelling were used to understand the mega-regional context of this interpretation and propose a new history of basin evolution. Key basin-forming northeast to southwest structural elements were developed during Carboniferous to Permian rifting, inherited fabrics from relaxed Proterozoic fold belts. Long-lived highs formed during this time delineated the structure of the basin through later Mesozoic rifting. Rifting was accommodated initially by inheritance of large basin-bounding Paleozoic listric faults and then development of new planar faults in the basin. This led to the formation of both rotated syn-rift sediment wedges and tilted fault block geometries. Structures related to several phases of inversion have been mapped, including a previously little-documented Early Cretaceous event. The influence of inherited structural trends and location of inversion structures is discussed. This work provides a new understanding of structural inheritance and rift architecture, and highlights the complexity of the inversion history of the Browse Basin. It has implications for petroleum systems development and the timing of potential hydrocarbon trap formation.

Beyond externalism. Exploring new directions in the history of archaeology

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Moro Abadía
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Central Position ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Critical History ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Directions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Conditions

AbstractIn recent years archaeologists have celebrated the emergence of a critical history of archaeology which has assumed a central position in disciplinary debates. This new historiography has been characterized by the adoption of an externalist or contextual approach primarily concerned with how social, economic and political conditions have influenced the interpretation of archaeological data. While externalism has played an essential role in the recognition of the history of archaeology as a field, I suggest in this article that it is time for historians to explore new ways of conceptualizing the social dimensions of archaeological knowledge. In particular, I consider how certain debates held by historians and sociologists of science during the last years can encourage historians of archaeology to enquire more critically about the blurry boundaries between ‘archaeology’ and its ‘context’.

scholarly journals Parallel paleogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lipson ◽  
Anna Szécsényi-Nagy ◽  
Swapan Mallick ◽  
Annamária Pósa ◽  
Balázs Stégmár ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Dynamics Of Population ◽  
History Of ◽  
Population Interactions ◽  
Almost All

Ancient DNA studies have established that European Neolithic populations were descended from Anatolian migrants who received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers. Many open questions remain, however, about the spatial and temporal dynamics of population interactions and admixture during the Neolithic period. Using the highest-resolution genome-wide ancient DNA data set assembled to date—a total of 177 samples, 127 newly reported here, from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Hungary (6000–2900 BCE,n= 98), Germany (5500–3000 BCE,n= 42), and Spain (5500–2200 BCE,n= 37)—we investigate the population dynamics of Neolithization across Europe. We find that genetic diversity was shaped predominantly by local processes, with varied sources and proportions of hunter-gatherer ances try among the three regions and through time. Admixture between groups with different ancestry profiles was pervasive and resulted in observable population transformation across almost all cultural transitions. Our results shed new light on the ways that gene flow reshaped European populations throughout the Neolithic period and demonstrate the potential of time-series-based sampling and modeling approaches to elucidate multiple dimensions of historical population interactions.

scholarly journals Eels, Beavers, and Horses: Human Niche Construction in the European Late Upper Palaeolithic

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony G. Brown ◽  
Laura S. Basell ◽  
Rebecca Farbstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
North West ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Human Niche Construction ◽  
Late Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Riverine Habitats

This paper examines interactions between co-occupants of riverine niches in north-west Europe during the Late Upper Palaeolithic using both ecological and archaeological data. It is argued that consideration of both the Lateglacial record and autecology of eel, beaver and horse supports a reinterpretation of some famous but enigmatic panels of Magdalenian mobiliary art as representations of eel fishing, along with horse and beaver exploitation in disturbed riverine habitats. It is further suggested that this constitutes a humanly co-constructed niche in ecological, nutritional, and symbolic terms, which was also particularly advantageous for human well-being and social development in this time and place.

Astronomy in the Upper Palaeolithic?

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Hayden ◽  
Suzanne Villeneuve
Keyword(s):  
Secret Society ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Archaeological Data

Beginning with Alexander Marshack's interpretation of engraved lines as lunar calendrical notations, a number of highly controversial claims have been made concerning the possible astronomical significance of Upper Palaeolithic images. These claims range from lunar notations, to solstice observances in caves, to constellation representations. Given the rare nature of artefacts and images that lend themselves to such interpretations, these claims are generally difficult to evaluate on the basis of archaeological data alone. However, comparative ethnology can provide at least a way of assessing the plausibility of such astronomical claims. If the premise is accepted that at least some of the Upper Palaeolithic groups were complex hunter-gatherers, then astronomical observances, or the lack of them, among ethnographic complex hunter-gatherers can help indicate whether astronomical observations were likely to have taken place among Upper Palaeolithic complex hunter-gatherers. A survey of the literature shows that detailed solstice observances were common among complex hunter-gatherers, often associated with the keeping of calendars and the scheduling of major ceremonies. Moreover, aggrandizers in complex hunter-gatherer societies often form ‘secret societies’ in which esoteric astronomical knowledge is developed. The existence of calendrical notations and secluded meeting places for secret-society members are suggested to be at least plausible interpretations for a number of Upper Palaeolithic caves and images.

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